Uproar has erupted in India after a Punjabi politician who fled custody while facing rape charges resurfaced in Adelaide, South Australia, with questions being asked about how he was able to leave the country.
Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, a Member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, managed to escape when police arrived at a farmhouse in Haryana to arrest him on September 2, and has been on the run ever since despite police carrying out multiple raids and issuing a “look-out notice”.
Punjab Police claimed the MLA’s supporters fired shots and threw stones at the arresting officers, but Pathanmajra disputes the police allegations and told Indian media he fled because he was afraid of being killed in a “fake encounter”.
But last week the fugitive politician appeared in a video interview on an Australia-based Punjabi channel where he said he would only return to his home province after getting bail, The Australia Today reported.
He also denied all criminal allegations against him, and said they were a “political conspiracy” resulting from a fallout with his ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) leadership in Delhi over flood “mismanagement”, Indian media reported.
“I am in Australia. I will come to my constituency only after getting bail. Currently, I am not in touch with any political party,” he said.
“In Punjab, ministers and MLAs are not consulted on key matters. Freedom of speech is being curtailed. After losing in Delhi, those leaders have now taken over Punjab, and they are ruining it the same way.”
In a social media post on Sunday he wrote: “From the past, every time Delhi lobby tried to control Punjab, but every time the people of Punjab opposed it. Punjab does not belong to anyone else – Punjab belongs to Punjabis only! And only Punjabis have the right to run Punjab, not Delhi lobby.”
Pathanmajra’s escape to Australia is a major embarrassment for the Punjab government and police, and while the AAP has not made a statement party insiders have called the case “deeply unfortunate”, and the opposition have accused the government of shielding him and refusing to uphold the law.
“When a sitting MLA facing rape charges can flee the country, it shows complete collapse of policing and accountability,” said a senior opposition leader in Chandigarh.
Police are now looking into requesting Pathanmajra’s extradition from Australia.
It is unclear how he managed to enter Australia despite facing serious charges and being wanted by police.
Police registered a case against Pathanmajra after a woman filed a complaint alleging he misrepresented himself as divorced, and married her despite being already married, and accused him of sexual exploitation, threat and sending “obscene material”.
Header image: Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra (Facebook).
